[sixQuarks]

C'mon, Elon has surpassed all of these guys. Steve Jobs comes the closest, but he was a brilliant designer, not an engineer like Elon. Wayne Huizenga is an interesting character, obvious business genius, but nothing like Elon. Jeff Bezos is brilliant at executing, but he has only really built one company, and is dabbling/nowhere close to what Elon accomplished with space ventures.

[huxley]

Actually Elon isn't an engineer, he has Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Economics (Wharton) as well as 2 days worth of a PhD in Applied Physics and Materials Science (Stanford).

What I didn't know was that Jeff Bezos actually does have an engineering degree, a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Princeton).

[sixQuarks]

You don't have to have a formal education to be considered an engineer. His bio says "engineer, inventor, explorer" http://www.biography.com/people/elon-musk-20837159

[yladiz]

I disagree, being an engineer is similar to being a doctor, meaning you go through training and take an oath before officially becoming one. I wouldn't consider a colleague an engineer if they didn't take the engineering oath.

[snovv_crash]

That's to be a registered engineer. It means you can sign off on human-used structures and machines. Lots of people are engineers, and just get a registered engineer to look it over and sign off before production.